Moment of Silence for Those Lost on United Airlines Flight 175 and at the World Trade Center 9:03 AM 9/11/2001

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I shall then observe my own moment of silence for the freedoms that have been stripped away by the fear-mongering of the TSA and DHS and their ilk.

Without the attacks of 9/11/01 -- an attack that was not even a result of any breach at any airport checkpoint -- TSA employees would be forced to actually look for meaningful work that doesn't involve sexually assaulting and virtually strip-searcching citizens.

In honor of those lost, please give us our country back. Please remember that there was no security failure on 9/11, so there was no reason to respond by stripping away our rights and our dignity, subjecting us all to virtual strip searches and sexual assaults.

Those that observed a moment in rememberance, thank you. May the families find peace these many years later. For those of you that purposely used this thread to undermine the spirit of a tribute to the fallen - shame on you.

"For those of you that purposely used this thread to undermine the spirit of a tribute to the fallen - shame on you."

No. Shame on those who use the mantra "nine eleven" to silence their critics. Shame on those who use the mantra "nine eleven" to expand the police state. Shame on those who use the mantra "nine eleven" to instill fear.

The goal of terrorism is not to kill people. In the end, it's not even about causing fear. Terrorism is about attacking someone's way of life. In so much as we've lost liberties to our "war on terror," the terrorists have won.

For those of you that purposely used this thread to undermine the spirit of a tribute to the fallen - shame on you.

What "tribute to the fallen" are you referring to?

The TSA feels no shame about invoking the memory of 9/11, and posthumously conscripting "the fallen," to justify spending billions of dollars to strip passengers of their rights, privacy, and property; and to even literally strip passengers with "advanced" scanners that peek beneath their clothes in search of the weekly quota of drug "referrals."

The TSA consider "Do you want to fly today?" an appropriate tribute to those who gave their lives, so that their officers can enjoy secure jobs with the authority to humble any passenger who questions their arbitrary and inconsistent interpretation of secret rules and procedures.

Those of us who speak out against the TSA's despotic and dubious approach to security do indeed remember 9/11, and do indeed mourn the victims of the tragedy. But we also mourn the loss and damage that followed. Specifically, the loss and damage inflicted not by terrorists who seek to destroy America, but by our own leaders and officials who believe that destroying what makes America unique and special is somehow necessary for security (as they empower themselves to define it).

The defining symbol of America in the 21st century-- the Age of Terror-- is a queue of citizens standing shoeless like sheep at an airport checkpoint, waiting to be herded into a scanner for an electronic strip search and then an "enhanced" pat down. It wasn't the terrorists who transformed America from "the land of the free and the home of the brave" into a Land of Fear where herds of cowering sheep present themselves for shearing airports. It was our own leaders who created the TSA, and then handed it carte blanche to define "security" in those terms.

I believe that if "the fallen" were somehow provided the opportunity to speak out about what the show of arrogance and contempt the TSA have perpetrated in their name, they would be thoroughly appalled. So I speak out in tribute to them.